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NHS cuts - your reaction

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Mark Cummings | 15:51 UK time, Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Hospital ward

The trust that runs our two main hospitals is going to shut 43 beds at Gloucestershire Royal - but says there could be more closures in the future.

Here are some of the comments from listeners to Wednesday's breakfast programme:

Pat in Cirencester says that as someone who has used the Cheltenham cardiac ward a lot recently it is horrifying to hear about the plans to cut hospital beds. Those in the cardiac ward are already under great pressure. The staff are brilliant and deserve full support for their life saving work.

An anonymous staff nurse at Cheltenham General says that Dr Frank Harsent (the Trust Chief Executive) needs to spend time on a ward to see exactly what goes on. What the nurses have been saying today is absolutely right - bed blocking does happen as many elderly patients are ready for discharge but there is nowhere for them to go. Dr Harsent talks about community hospitals, but what if you're in Cheltenham, you don't drive and your partner is sent to the community hospitals in Tewkesbury, or Moreton or Cirencester? And closing Delancey hospital didn't help.

Jenny in Stroud says she was talking to a friend over the weekend who used to be a matron. When she was working, hygiene was the priority. When the matron was in hospital herself later in life, she contracted MRSA which kept her in longer. If the hygiene was better we wouldn't need as many beds.

Ray in Hucclecote says that if more than 40 beds are going to go, does that mean the nurses, doctors and cleaners who look after them are going as well? Surely you don't save money by simply getting rid of the beds.

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